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Just ten years ago a lot of the options that you now have as a business leader just weren’t realistic. The rise of mobile devices is the most obvious place to focus but across the “stack” tools have gotten more powerful and easier to work with. Here are three reasons why you should be considering custom apps and services for your business.

Cloud Platforms

Just a few years ago getting a simple website or data service up and running involved purchasing your own servers, renting space in a data center and hiring someone to maintain them. This was expensive and required a good deal of expertise.

Today you could get a website or service up and running over your lunch break today. The rise of AWS, Azure and other cloud platforms have made getting up and running easier than ever before. And since you are building a tool for only your team to use, the monthly hosting cost will be less than your cable bill.

Powerful Mobile Devices

The same goes for mobile devices. In the past you would spend as much or more on hardware as you would the software you were building. Remember these things? Not only were these devices big and clunky, they were also extremely limited in functionality.

Today over 70% of companies have smartphones deployed to their team that is light years ahead of previous hardware. Heck the iPhone X is more powerful than the Macbook Pro. This greatly decreases the cost of deploying apps and software to your team. Not only are the devices more than capable, there is very little training that needs to be done because of the existing familiarity with the device.

Free Features

Alongside the hardware advances, software has matured equally as much or more. When building an app for iOS or Android you get so many options for free. Features that would cost a fortune to build from scratch, you now get for free in the OS. Here’s a short list: barcode scanning, location tracking, photo management, Bluetooth connectivity and data storage. The same applies for web technologies. You no longer have to buy expensive licensing from Microsoft to get the tools you need to build modern web apps. The open source community has made incredible advances in the tools that are offered for free.

Not Sayin’ It’s Cheap

In fairness, building your own software isn’t cheap. But the cost is much closer in price to many enterprise software suites, probably cheaper. And your likelihood of success is exponentially higher than it was a few years ago.

I bet you that your team is already trying to use their smartphones and tablet to get their work done. What would happen if you were to empower them with a modern software tool that was built specifically to meet their needs?

Everywhere you look today there is a new software product that’s targeted at your team or your industry or your philosophy. Some of them are truly transformative and enable a level of communication and collaborative work that’s not been possible before. Yet even the best of these tools force you to change the way your organization operates.

We could talk for days about enterprise software but let’s simply focus on apps and services. Many of these products are specifically built for your use case but still require concessions. Many times these seem like small concessions but over time become more and more painful.

Can you think of an example within your organization?

You bought an app that brings a ton of value for your field team. But is not easily accessible by your accounting team when it comes time to invoice your customer.

Or you found a sales tool that works great for your sales team. But the executive team has no visibility into how the team is performing.

At its core this is the idea behind what we do at Beloved Robot. We’ve encountered so many businesses that have a myriad of apps and software that meet 80% of their needs. So we ask the question:

What if you didn’t have to change your business processes to accommodate a software tool?

What if that tool was built specifically tailored to your organization?

There is great potential to use technology to reshape the way your business operates. However, finding a partner who understands your industry and your unique needs is critical. It’s pretty easy to find a vendor that can supply a solution, but do they have enough understanding to provide you the solution you actually need.

Are you perpetually stuck in reaction mode, or as we call it “putting out fires”. If so, how do you get ahead of the wave and start being more proactive within your company today? Keep reading for a clear plan.